Taiwan Business Quick Take

Staff writer, with agencies

Tue, Sep 24, 2013 - Page 14

SOCIETY

Nation’s workforce shrinking

An extremely low birthrate means Taiwan will face a shrinking workforce in the coming years, with four in every 10 Taiwanese to be 65 or older by 2060, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) has said. The working population — aged 15 to 64 — which numbered more than 17.3 million at its peak, will start to decline in 2015, the council said. The old-age dependency ratio, which measures the percentage of economically inactive elderly people against the number of workers, is expected to surpass the young-age dependency ratio — the number of economically inactive young people compared with the workforce — by 2016. This means that the number of unemployed elderly citizens will outnumber the nation’s unemployed youth. Last year, the old-age ratio climbed to 15 percent, nearing the young-age ratio, which fell to 19.7 percent.

ENERGY

CPC shutters No. 6 cracker

CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 中油) shut its new No. 6 naphtha cracker in Greater Kaohsiung earlier this month to fix an unspecified fault, the company said yesterday. The state-run refiner began trial runs at the plant on Aug. 14 and was awaiting local government approval to begin commercial production, spokeswoman Jessica Tang (唐苑莉) said. CPC’s original plan to halt its No. 4 naphtha cracker for repairs for two months now depends on the successful operation of the No. 6 plant, Tang said.